1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a collapsible structure, such as an umbrellalike clothes drier having a central tubular post and a spiderlike folding frame, which is preferably adjustably mounted on said post and carries a clothesline and can be unfolded and collapsed, or a garden umbrella having a central tube and a spiderlike folding frame, which carries a covering and can be unfolded and collapsed.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Umbrellalike clothes driers are often left outdoors after use so that they can readily be re-used for a drying of clothes without a need for substantial preparatory work.
But in many places the air is so highly polluted that the clothesline provided on the clothes drier is soiled quickly so that the clothesline and the spider arms or spreaders which will be contacted by the clothes to be dried must be cleaned in a time-consuming operation before each use of the drier. The clothesline may also be used when the clothes drier is carried in a collapsed form into a cellar or another room for storage.
Garden umbrellas are also left outdoors, as a rule, and are unfolded or collapsed as required. In places where the air is highly polluted for certain times, the covering of the garden umbrella will highly be soiled so that serious problems will arise, e.g., in connection with parasols having a printed fabric covering. The covering must be cleaned in a complicated operation after a relatively short time and such cleaning will adversely affect the fabric covering or the print thereon so that the umbrella will no longer have an attractive appearance.
It is known that umbrellalike clothes driers and garden umbrellas can be provided with flexible tubular sheaths, which are slipped over the umbrellalike clothes drier or the umbrella when it has been collapsed. For use with an umbrellalike clothes drier, such sheath may have a length up to 2 meters and its handling is most inconvenient and in most cases the sheath can be slipped over the unhandy clothes drier only by two persons cooperating with one another. It is also known to protect garden umbrellas by means of caps, which can be slipped onto the umbrella from the outside and which when not in use are stored separately from the garden umbrella and are fitted on the umbrella by means of stiff, long rods, which are inserted into respective pockets of the cap. Such caps for large garden umbrellas are extremely unhandy and when the cap has been removed the cap as well as the rod may be lost or damaged.